The Archbishop Carroll girls basketball team advanced to the quarterfinal round of the PIAA AAAA state tournament on Tuesday night with a dissection of Downingtown East, 62-32. The victory allowed the Patriots to face Wilson West Lawn (20-9) of Reading, a 26-21 winner over Upper Dublin, on Friday night at Spring-Ford at 7:30 p.m.
Against the Cougars (24-5), there was little if any suspense once the first quarter unfolded. The Patriots jumped out to a 6-0 lead thanks to baskets from Emily Fazzini, Jen Carney and Sarah Curran. DTE finally scored at the 5:28 mark thanks to a bucket from Kelly Devlin (20 points) but it did little to stem the Patrtiot tide.
Curran and Carney added points as the first quarter came to a close and ABC led 11-2 after the first eight minutes.
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The Pats were just starting to roll. Thanks to a persistent press that forced Downingtown East turnovers quickly and often, their lead pushed to 16-4 with 5:36 to play in the half. It didn't end there. Carney and Fazzini continued their inside dominance and by halftime, Carroll had a more-than-comfortable 26-7 lead.
"We just ran into a real buzzsaw," Downingtown East coach Bob Schnure said later. "We're a pretty good team and we just got demolished. They keep running waves of players at you and we didn't have an answer tonight."
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The Patriots (21-5) continued to own every phase of the game in the second half.
While there was an early lull in scoring to start the third quarter that allowed the Cougars to cut the lead to 30-15 at 3:20, Fazzini took over and helped the Patriots build on their advantage again.She hit a basket and a follow-up foulshot at 3:03 and it was 33-17. Rachel Pearson scored back-to-back baskets at 1:30 then added a freethrow and the District 12 number 2 seed was ahead 41-25 after three quarters.
"Most of the time, we played real good defense," Carroll's Meghan Creighton said. "We had a rough beginning to the season, but we're playing good now. There was a little lapse in the third quarter but most of the time, we had good switching (on defense)."
Carroll's lead ballooned to 26 points at one point (52-26) before the 62-32 final as numerous substitutes did little to slow down the Patriots.
Curran finished the night with 13 points while Pearson had 11 and Fazzini and Carney scoring 10 apiece. Overall, 13 players scored for the Patriots.
Next up for Archbishop Carroll will be Wilson West Lawn, the District 3 second seed, a team that doesn't score a lot of points and defeated Downingtown East by a point during the regular season. A victory in the quartefinals would mean a meeting with either Mount St. Joseph's or Boyertown in the semifinals March 22.
